What needs to be configured

See further down this document to find a HowTo for all of these issues.

Hardware

ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 (128 MB)

Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Mini-PCI Express Adapter

IrDA 1.1 (FIR - 4Mbps)

4-in-1 digital media reader (MultiMedia Card, MemoryStick, SD)

Switching to virtual terminal (Alt+Ctrl+F1) garbles screen.

Extra keys

These keys have no assignment by default.

Windows key (Keycode Super_L)

Context menu key (Keycode 0xe3)

ThinkVantage button (Keycode 0x9f)

Web browser back (Keycode 0xea)

Web browser forward (Keycode 0xe9)

Multimedia Keys (Fn+up, Fn+down, Fn+left arrow, Fn+right arrow)

Untested

Hardware

ThinkPad 56K Modem (MDC-1.5)

Firewire

VGA out

S-Video out

Headphone Jack

Microphone Jack

CardBus slot (Type 2)

ExpressCard slot (54 or 34)

Integrated Fingerprint Reader

UltraBay Enhanced

Annoyances

This is a list of minor annoyances. I can live with them but a solution would be nice. I hope most of them will be solved with edgy+1 ;)

Laptop fan is constantly on. Don't know if this is specific to linux or is an hardware issue. I think this is related to the graphics card getting too hot. You may be interested in Problem with fan noise.

Installing edgy eft

I used the Live CD installer. The installation process goes easy and painless. Just follow the instructions and you're fine.
I completely erased the hard disk, wiping Windows XP off the ThinkPad. No dual-boot, no problems.

VMware server

Unfortunately I had to use windows for a professional image management application called IMatch, and I did that by using VMware server. Be advised the Lenovo recovery disks won't work in VMware. They will install fine, but after the first boot attempt after the installation Windows just keeps rebooting again and again.

So I used a purchased copy of Windows XP Professional that I had left from my former Dell Inspiron 8100 which was not in use anymore. To be honest I prefer this vanilla Windows XP install because it doesn't come with all the preloaded software that is on Lenovo's rescue CD.

Solutions

ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 (128 MB)

To get hardware acceleration and a resolution >1024x768, you need to install ATI's fglrx driver.

1. Install the fglrx driver:

$ sudo apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx

2. In Edgy the Composite extension is enabled by default, however, fglrx does not yet support Composite with DRI. In order to disable Composite you have to edit the xorg.conf file (and make a backup of this file first):

$ sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup

$ sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

3. Add these lines at the end of the file:

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection

4. Now activate the fglrx driver:

$ sudo aticonfig --initial

$ sudo aticonfig --overlay-type=Xv

5. After restarting your system (or alternatively doing Ctrl+Alt+Backspace to restart the X Server) your system will be running the fglrx drivers.

Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Mini-PCI Express Adapter

Getting WPA working with your Wifi card is easy.

1. Install the network-manager-gnome package

$ sudo apt-get install network-manager-gnome

2. You have to deactivate the GNOME network settings for all networking devices that should be controlled by network-manager:

System -> Administration -> Network

3. In the network settings deactivate the Wifi network.

4. Log out and log in again to activate the new settings.

IrDA 1.1 (FIR - 4Mbps)

IrDA does not work out-of-the-box because the necessary package and configuration is not included in a stock Ubuntu install.

1. Install the missing package
$ sudo apt-get install irda-utils

2. Configure irda-utils

$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure irda-utils

3. On the configure screen set the options as the following:

Activate IrDa on boot-up: yes
Attempt to probe for IrDa at system boot: yes
Discovery mode: yes
Typ of the IrDa-adaptor: native
Typ of the FIR-chip: nsc-ircc
Options for the modules of the FIR-chip:
Port for setserial to deactivate:

4. Restart IrDA:

$ sudo /etc/init.d/irda-utils stop

$ sudo /etc/init.d/irda-utils start

5. Load the FIR IrDA driver:

$ sudo modprobe irda0

6. Now test if activating IrDA was successful. Place your IrDA device (mobile phone, PDA or whatever) in front of the IrDA eye and activate IrDA on your device. Doing a

$ cat /proc/net/irda/discovery

should list your IrDA device.

4-in-1 digital media reader (MultiMedia Card, MemoryStick, SD)

The digital media reader does not work because the kernel module tifm_sd is not loaded on startup. To get it loaded, add it to the modules file:

1. Open the file modules (and do a backup first, just in case):

$ sudo cp /etc/modules /etc/modules.backup

$ sudo gedit /etc/modules

2. Add the following to the end of the file:

tifm_sd

3. Save the file and restart.

Getting virtual terminals to work

After installing the fglrx drivers, virtual terminals (Alt+Ctrl+F1) don't work anymore. The screen is all garbled. To get your virtual terminals working again, follow these instructions:

1. Edit grub's menu.lst file (and make a backup first):

$ sudo cp /boot/grub/menu.lst /boot/grub/menu.lst.backup

$ sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

2. Find a line that says

# defoptions=quiet splash

3. Replace this line with

# defoptions=quiet splash vga=791

4. Now find the line that boots your kernel. This line is just below the ## ## End Default Options ## and looks like this: